AI employees with apocalypse fears face a troubling question: Should they quit or stay?

For AI workers who fear an apocalypse, is it better to quit or fight for safety from within? Illustration by Thomas Fuller/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images Jacob Coxon's Anthropic exit sparked debate over whether to push for AI safety from inside or out.

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AI workers with apocalypse fears are facing a troubling, though not unprecedented, career dilemma .

Should they quit their jobs to avoid potentially helping make the doomsday scenario they envision a reality? Or, should they drive change for the better from within? It's a thorny predicament that came into focus this week when Jacob Coxon, a former OpenAI employee, said in an X post that he was resigning from Anthropic because the "people building AI earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade." Soon after, Evan Hubinger, who leads Anthropic's alignment stress-testing team, essentially backed Coxon, saying he believes there is a greater-than-10% chance AI could kill all humans within the next decade.

Why some workers stay For AI workers worried that they're contributing to mankind's destruction, deciding whether to quit or stay put is more complicated than it may seem, said Jeremie Harris, CEO and cofounder of Gladstone AI, a Washington, DC-based safety and advisory company focused on national security risks and catastrophic threats from advanced AI.

"I don't particularly fault anyone for making either call," he said.

Harris said his job involves regularly talking with staff at Anthropic and other top AI labs, and that in recent months he's heard many express fears similar to those Coxon described.

While quitting can be a moral response to building a dangerous technology , he said, Al labs could end up with few or no workers willing to press for change if resignations pile up.

"The people who are left are going to be the ones who are least concerned about safety," Harris said, while "people who care arguably should be the ones in the seat." In response to Coxon's announcement, Anthropic employee Anna Wang said on X that she works at the company because she thinks she "can do better at reducing risks from the inside." She added that she respects and endorses others "who think that it's better to do so from the outside." A spokesperson for Anthropic declined to comment after confirming Wang's employment.